I did think of the article on Bees posted earlier in the week when I first read this. It really does seem that something has gone drastically wrong
with the whole food supply chain.

Is it the greed of the Farmers or of the stores buying the product demanding everything cheaper and cheaper or our own fault for wanting more and more
for less and less all the time?
I think it's a combination of all of the above.

iadded an edit and comment just in case
but forgot to add
just as bees are now feeding/getting their fix out of garbage cans

maybe there'll be a mass stampede of mad bovines invading a walmart near you,
coming soon

I suddenly find myself feeling guilty for eating popcorn while reading this topic.

As for feeding cattle gummy worms and cookies: Just no. Cattle were not meant to eat those things to begin with and I do not even want to begin to
fathom how difficult it will be for them to digest foods like that. They may have four stomachs but, COME ON. Are we becoming really so desperate that
we're feeding our cattle non natural preservative filled filth? Can you begin to think of how unhealthy this is going to make some of the meat? Just,
no... I'm switching to chicken, pork, and turkey only methinks.

I work with a guy that has cattle. I know nothing about it so I quiz him all the time as I find it interesting. I ask him what they eat. He says,
"whatever is out there with a little barley, and alfalfa because they like it.". Now he does give them mineral salt licks and shots for diseases,
but other than that, pretty natural food. It seems that if it is growing in the ground, and they like it, it is most likely healthy for them.

On a side note, it doesn't cost much once you have the cattle. They keep reproducing, which makes you more money. There is a lady that lives near
here that sold 400 head of cattle to China. If you don't feed them junk, they don't need as much upkeep. That much I have understood from my
questions anyways.

Edit: To the cost question:

He also is a grain farmer, so he will plant a section of land with enough for the cattle (barley, alfalfa, etc.) and keep what he needs for the
winter. So I don't think he would be doing it if he wasn't making money.

edit on 23-9-2012 by superman2012 because: (no reason
given)

Indeed but thats also dependent on rain........

When the rain stops and drought sets in, you have to start buying your feed, and that isnt cheap.....especially when everyone is experiencing
it....

There are quite a lot of factors that go into the process for local ranchers and farmers

So they are scrambling to feed the cows sugar, not good nutrients, so that's why marshmallows etc.

Once upon a time, cows lived in pastures and grazed on grass, living a life that was as quiet and peaceful as their bovine nature. But then,
somebody discovered that feeding cattle cheap, subsidized corn would fatten them up two to three times as fast as grass and that you could raise
hundreds of cattle in the same pastoral space that would only support a few. Thus began the era of modern feedlot cattle.

You make some really good points, obviously all the other crops rely on water too, however it seems like an odd jump to go straight from "Corn prices
are high because of a drought" to "Lets give the cows Gummie worms" without considering some of the crops that arent so badly effected by drought
first.

When we think of cattle and farms, most people think in terms of small scale farmers... large rolling pastures with maybe a few dozen head of cattle
quietly grazing in fenced fields. That image is true for small scale farmers such as myself. We then sell our culled and chosen livestock at auction
within about 2 hours drive.

What this article is actually describing is the large feed lot herds common out west and which consistantly supply the majority of US beef. These
cattle are bred and born on what you would recognize as farms, then shipped to feed lots where they are raised and "finished" for market.

In other words, they are crammed into crowded lots with long feed troughs and industrially feed and raised. For most of their life, they are fed a
mixture of nutritional corn and grains, then a couple of months prior to shipping and processing... they are crammed with growth agents and special
formula feeds high in protein and fat which makes them grow as much in 2 months as they did the first 6-8 months of life... this is where the
"farmer" makes his/her money... getting the finishing weight on as they are sold by live hoof weight... the heavier the cow, the more money it
brings...

It is this in between process that the farmers are adding the snack foods... corn is high and getting higher. So, to cut costs of feed and increase
your bottom line... you feed them junk food... and that is what it is. All the cheese curls and potato chips and popcorn loaded with salt and BHT and
colorings and preservatives... all going into cattle that will be sitting on the store meat case in about months time.

I raise hogs for my family and I sell some pigs and piglets to make a little money and recoup my feed costs. I sold four this weekend and will deliver
Tuesday. A friend of mine is interested in another one I have for sale... He works for a local snack company. He can get all the "stales" and out of
date snacks he wants to feed his pig when he gets it. He has offered me the opportunity to start buying cheap "stales" for pennies on the dollar to
feed my pigs.

As tempting as it is, I think I will decline the offer. I am doing well by growing purple top turnips. A single turnip seed is about the size of a
pepper grain and their are thousands per pound of turnip seed.. each seed in turn grows into a beautiful 1+ pound turnip with nutritious green tops. I
have planted pounds of seed so far and when they are ready in another month, I will have all the feed I want for my pigs.... fresh, clean, natural,
and homegrown. The snack food "stales" on the otherhand are filling and add weight, but I really don't like all the bad stuff my pigs will be
gorging themselves on. It will reflect in the texture, taste, and nutrition of the pork later when we slaughter. Not good.

Plus, the turnips and turnip greens we can eat, we can sell, and we can feed to the hogs... anybody from the South knows turnip greens or "sallet"
is big down here around Thanksgiving and Xmas. Turnips are a win/win all the way around.

Anyway, I understand the principal and intentions of the farmers, but it is not really healthy for the cow and subsequently not healthy for the
consumer... you are what you eat... which means you are what the cow eats... which is why we have "madcow syndrome" and 11 year old girls built like
porn stars...

I have to agree that while Farmers in certain areas of the country are suffering with lack of water, is no so in other areas, still I see this as a
way for food speculators manipulation of prices of certain food items for profit gains, is like the peanut scare last year, I live in peanut country
and shortage was not going on in my neck of the woods, but with big peanut plants manufactures in the area they were the most to profit from a scare
of shortage of peanut butter.

Now as for Gummie worms even cookies, just remember that corn syrup comes from corn that like one other member said is about the sugar content what
the farmers are looking for to fatten the cows, that is not natural food source in nature for cows.

Shallow wells might go dry, but what about ground water aquifers? We get our water in town here from a depth of approx. 400-500 ft. It isn't too
hard to check on the abundance of aquifers in the US, the problem is, who owns them?

I've done a lot of research on the food supply, even took a university class on the topic and this is awful.

Cows are designed to eat grass - grass takes less water than corn. Unfortunately, corn has priority in this country, and even when it dies, it still
took what water that was left.
Cows don't normally eat corn, but because of their terrible living conditions and lack of options they will eat what is given to them.
A healthy cow's stomach of four chambers is neutral.The corn turn's their stomachs acidic, like ours. This can cause cow-to human or human-to cow
diseases transmission. Because of how sick the animals are in the feed lot, veterinarians have to load them up with antibiotics and pull out chunks of
gunk in their stomachs.

This is a Food Inc clip of a veterinarian cleaning out the first chamber of the cow's stomach. It explains how e-coli can be transmitted between cows
and humans - something that wouldn't normally happen if the cow was healthy. Food Inc clip youtube

Feeding these poor animals nothing but fake-sugar and chemicals will only aggravate their health problems and cause diseases through the human and cow
populations to soar. If a person eats nothing but processed foods they will get very ill.
Now imagine eating a cow, who was never meant to eat these things, who is sick from these junk foods and suffered greatly from it's illness. I
believe no amount of dye, ammonia, "natural flavors" and modern medicine will prevent disease or cover a meat that tastes of sickness or a milk that
tastes of death.
I forsee a time in the near future where instead of people being scared of piggy-flu, we will have a pandemic of bovine-flu and other strange plagues.

The underground aquifers have been the solution for large scale farmers out west for the last 50 years. But with abundant use, even their levels are
receeding... look into the Ogallala Aquifer. It is massive, and yet... continual and substantive use is starting to deplete it.

Worse yet, as the water levels receed... the mineral and salts content goes up. Thus, over the course of the next generations, we will be poisoning
the very lands we wish to cultivate.

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